Nismo oil cooler install
 

This weekend I had the official 370 nismo oil cooler installed. Quality of the kit has no equal, and the setrab 34 row cooler is HUGE. Took it for a ride and normal temps used to be 220 cruising "I'm in Guam" and 200 just siting there. Now It cruises at 175-180 and I can't get it over 200 even when on it hard...... Sounds great right? Here's the problem. Everyone here knows what a super charged car sounds like right? That whining whirring noise? Well that's what it sounds like with this cooler installed. I've seen a million "my cooler makes noise" threads but so far no one seems to know what the **** they are talking about. I'm about 99% sure the noise is not a malfunction or defect and it's something I will just have to live with. This isn't the first cooler I've put on a 370, and yes the other one whirred too. And it wasn't even a setrab. What I would like to know is an actually intelligent explanation from ANY company that designs a cooler for a 370 what the **** the noise actually is!! I would be perfectly content with a simple "it's normal" from em. Anyone have any real, non opinion related info on the subject ?

Do you have the thermostatic adapter plate or an open one?

From what we can distinguish, the noise sems to be related to the oil pump itself (one of the main commonalities across all 370Zs).

I say this because we have experienced the noise with a variety of oil cooler kits over the past year or so (both custom and off the shelf). We have installed oil cooler kits both using -8 or -10 line sizes using regular SS Lines, Aeroquip Socketless or Aeroquip Starlite Race Line. We have heard the noise on kits using various Setrab cooler sizes as well.

I agree with you, if it was a malfunction or a defect, we would have seen a failure of some sort by now. Given the large number of oil cooler kits sold/installed by all respective manufacturers, and the relative consistency of the noise, I feel that the noise is OK.

We attempted diagnose the noise and started by isolating the lines from the any metal surfaces. At one point we were thinking that the noise was being transmitted thru the chassis. The noise did seem to dissipate slightly, but not completely. We HAVE noticed that some 370Z's do make the noise louder than others, even when installing identical oil cooler kits.

Just thought I would throw this out there... I would like to look into the noise more. But like you said, it happens to almost all 370Z's who install an oil cooler kit, so it has become accepted as normal.

If he installed a NISSAN MOTORSPORTS kit, he will have a non-thermostatic sandwich plate adapter unless he has modified his kit.

Chii...which kit do you have? A "Nissan Motorsports" or a true NISMO. The true NISMO oil cooler kit built and designed at NISMO Japan by the Omori factory is extremely different (and expensive) when compared to the piece created by Nissan Motorsports here in the United States. Where did you purchase the kit from? Where is your oil cooler located (that is a key identifier as to which kit you have)?

Could it be related to the extra back pressure the pump is required to deal with? I have the series 1 - 72 row which supposedly has less back pressure due to having a lot more rows that are short (mounted sideways, oil flows top to bottom) with a non-thermostatic plate and I don't hear any noise ever. But then with all the other noises the car makes such as ECU wine, fuel pump wine, transmission input shaft rattle, I could just be missing it.

Just a thought for all the tuners/shops out there, as I read about vibration/drone/buzzing/etc in relation to exhaust, oil coolers, etc. Has anyone tried to fab some way to mount some accelerometers to various locations of the car and establish a baseline via an oscilloscope or some other method? That way you could build a database of sorts (I realize that would take awhile, but hey, you have a common platform be it Z or G), but the payoff, IMO, would be huge by eliminating know locations of vibrations (drone, buzzing, etc.) before they would occur. The biggest investment would be time, I imagine. I'm a jet engine mechanic, vibrations are a big deal to us lol. Anyway, just a thought :tiphat:

we should ask someone from Dubai or another hot *** area that has the factory installed nissan oil cooler to see if it also whines. at the same time pick apart the design and see if we share the same pump and ect....

Sorry I live in Guam lol so excuse the late reply please. I have the Nissan motorsports unit, not modified. I don't run a thermostatic plate as I'm in a tropic environment. And the core is a 34 row setrab, mounted on the left. It is almost too big, it blocks over half of the radiator. I bought the kit directly from nismo, dealing through my dealer. Not to be confused with the 1200$ version from japan that's really not much different, just fits w/o flipping the stabilizer bar and has air fins. The car is being moved to Ohio in about 2 weeks, I'm very concerned that it will actually be TOO cold with the cooler. What thermo plate is everyone using, how much does it cost, and where do I get one?

Z1 sells a thermostatic plate specifically for folks like you who purchased the Nismo oil cooler. Iirc, it's around $150 but i'm not 100% sure on the price.

The NISMO units additional cost comes from the fact that they locate it in the Driver (LHD) side of the fascia, just beneath the head light (in front of the wheel). It does not block the radiator like most other kits do on the market, but it does have alot more going on in terms of additional parts. The kit has a new front fender liner that is specially made along with brackets and ducts.

Like FL 4motion mentioned, we do sell a conversion kit for the NISMO equipped cars. It will require you to disassemble your existing lines and remove forged AN fittings in favor for a rebuildable, swivel fitting. The process is very simple to do. We use the Mocal Thermostatic Sandwich plate adapter for our kits. We examined other units available on the market and decided upon the Mocal unit for multiple reasons. The two primary reasons were:

1. Compact design - Allowed for the fittings to positioned at multiple angles. It also did not offset the OEM filter as much as other units.
2. Retained the OEM Oil Filter - Some units on the market will not work safely with the OEM oil filter. The Mocal unit has the perfect dimensions to be compatible with the factory Nissan Oil Filters.

The Nismo Thermostatic Conversion Kit lists for $150.00 on our site. It includes the necessary fittings, seals and sandwich plate. If you decide to go this route, I would be more than happy to talk you thru the install.

If you decide to build your own kit, you will still need to convert the current fittings on the Nissan Motorsports Oil Cooler kit to a conventional thread pitch fitting (AN, NPT, etc) in order to work with most sandwich plates found on the market. Nissan Motorsports specifically made their own sandwich plate with an odd ball port style fitting :confused:. From what we have found, there are no other sandwich plate adapters available that use that same thread pitch.

The Middle Eastern market oil cooler kit found on the 370Z from the factory is very similar to what is installed on the older 350Z's (VQ35DE's only). The US spec VQ35HR 350Z's and G35's did not have the factory oil cooler either. The factory style oil cooler kit is different in operation when compared to the oil-to-air style used by the aftermarket oil cooler kits. The factory oil cooler has a sandwich plate that passes oil thru it (it does not exit the sandwich plate at all and passes directly into the oil filter or block). Coolant is passed thru ports in the sandwich plate, sending the coolant around the oil thru passages (similar to coolant passing thru the cylinder block or heads) and extracts the heat that way. There really is not much additional oil added to the engine or that much addional strain or demand placed on the oil pump. I highly doubt that the Middle Eastern market 370Z's would hear any unusual noises like what we experience here.

awesome! exactly what i was looking for. thx!

I just installed a Setrab 25 row cooler last week and on the first test run, the car was making this whining noise that matched the RPMs of the engine. For a second, I thought maybe I had accidentally installed a supercharger as well...but then I began to worry that it wasn't right.I also switched to fully synethetic royal purple oil and thought maybe the two were related. Honestly I was a bit concerned, but after hearing that the noise is common after oil cooler installs with no known failures to date, I feel much better. Thanks!

hi guys... this is my first post.. i have a swift sport and recently i installed the R's racing cooler kit... I didn't filled the cooler with oil before connecting it, but i watched the oil levels and i put one extra lt after 1 minute of keeping the engine running... so the oil levels are correct... i hear the same electric sound coming from the oil pump. I send an email to the company from which i bought the kit and they say : normally we wouldn't expect any noise. I have driven the car for many miles and everything seems to be ok.